Where are those bee hives???

...this little visitor came back to finish off the bee hives that he/she had already torn into. The hives were in a corral area by the creek (which is very close to our home). This young black bear was probably on it's own for the first time and found the hives and tasted the honey and decided to come back for more. The hives were moved to a safer place.

We have many bears in our area and they especially like to roam by the river and creeks. Bear tracks can be seen on the sandy part of the bank back by the river most any day.

...My son took this picture when the bear was trying to peer over the tall grass in the corral area to see who was there and if it was "safe" to come eat the honey.

Tubin' the River

Boo-Boo by the river
where we "put-in"
to float down...
second picture is
the river to south
east...

Bear tracks on the

sand on beach small

bear tracks....

The "pond" out back

of the house by the

river....

...it was a little overcast and not too warm but we decided to tube the River!.. I was dubious and did not know if I wanted to put my aging body on an inner tube at this point in my life...not to mention that the water is extremely cold, I mean really truly cold! But, everyone else was going...I kinda pondered it for a while and thought...what the heck, live each day to the fullest (and try not to get broken in the pursuit of "happiness").

...the tubes were repaired and all was at the ready. Walk back to the River...still had a chance to "pull out" of the fun! Tube in the water, daughter-in-law holding the tube so I could get on and then she gave me a push into the current (too late to turn back)...oh-my-gosh (and other superlatives) and shouts/screams as my bottom hit the cold water. Actually, I scared my dog, Boo-Boo and I think, at this point, he ran back to the house.

..well, I was underway...this was not so bad -- actually it was fun...it has been a few years since I have done this. We spent many summers floating the river out back of the house. It was always such fun. There were times when I would tube the river with my Anatolian Burak before I went to work in the afternoon...very refreshing...then walk back to the ranch. Of course, I was much younger, weighed less, and all my limbs worked!

I think this would be a good exercise for the flappy underarms...hmmmm...after a while the cold is not so cold and all that nonsense is forgotten as you paddle your arms and hands in the water trying to stay with the current and away from the shore.

It was really too much fun...a forgotten fun perhaps of years past when we did it with the children and friends and family. I actually would have been willing to go "again"...

I will add some pictures that I had taken the other day at the river. I never know where the photos are going to load and how they will assimilate into my narrative. I have to take some Bloggin' lessons. So hang in there with me about my photo inserts...I usually just put them in at the beginning and hope for the best.

Happy Sunday to all...........

Cousin Mary Frances comes for a visit!!

Annie Oakley AKA Mary Frances

(She's harmless folks, these are all

black power and unloaded!)

Still did not have her

"riding legs" together!

The Magnificent Four!

Annie AKA Mary Frances

on Butterscotch

Move 'em up!

The blue speck in the background is

Mary Frances

Mary's bear (the brown speck in the grass)

Trip on Waterton lakes

travel on the International

ah...a wonderful shot towards

Yellow Mountain

Looking towards Chief

we were way up on top

of a high hill

Looking towards Camp Nine

...This is a ode to my wonderful cousin, Mary Frances, who came for a ranch visit! Boy, did we have fun with Mary. She got to do everything and then some. Mary helped herd cattle and move them to a summer pasture.

The weather was beautiful -- not too hot and not too cold. Mary and I had a great day on the four wheeler. We went to the top of two really high hills on our property and could see all over the valley. These are views we tend to take for granted until we have the pleasure to show them to friends or family and then are awed by the grandeur that lays before us! To exclaim, Wow, is an understatement of the beauty that surrounds us every day.

Mary arrived on the 30th -- but getting to and from the airport is an all-day trip! But from the next day until she had to leave -- the days were packed with fun things to do.

I think Mary enjoyed the ride and rounding up and moving the cattle the most. There is such a camaraderie between all that participate. Everyone has a good time.

Our trip to Waterton Lakes, Alberta, Canada was a little wet, but the rain made everything so lush at Goat Haunt and the townsite of Waterton that it was worth it! If you ever have the chance, take the drive up the Chief Mountain Highway (17) to the Waterton Townsite -- it is such a beautiful jewel nestled in the Rocky Mountains. And an absolute must is the boat cruise on the International Ferry which can seat 200! You can ride on top or down below. It is a wonderful trip down the beautiful Waterton Lakes to Goat Haunt, Montana. The trip is narrated and is a total joy. You have about a half hour to walk to the Rangers Station at Goat Haunt before you have to walk back to board the boat for your journey back to the townsite. If you go any further than the Ranger Station you will have to have the proper documents and go through US Customs and Border Protection inspection. You can take day hikes and catch a later boat after your hike. The shops and resturants in Waterton townsite are fun to visit. And your visit cannot be complete without some delicious icecream in a homemade cone at the icecream shop. Take your cone and sit on the shore of Waterton Lake and just enjoy the day!

Mary Frances only had a little more than a week and this is just not enough time to show our visitors all that our wonderful area has to offer. We were able to drive through Going-to-the-Sun Highway (Logan's Pass) and visit places we have visited on previous trips together. It was a glorious day. It is best to get a very early start in order to (perhaps) see wildlife and to beat the traffic. When you get on the west side be sure to stop at Lake McDonald and put your toes in the water...skip a few rocks/stones and just enjoy your day!

Mary has not seen bears on her previous visits, but we were able to see a bear up Many Glacier Road when it was near dark. So, my picture is rather dark, but the bear was very close to the road. Then each day when Mary was here someone would come and say...oh my gosh I just saw a grizzly and two cubs...I just saw a cub...I just saw a .... at least Mary got to see one bear!

While we were back on the sand by St. Mary River, we found a small bear track, rather fresh, I might add.

...and so I end this post with a great big thank you to Mary Frances who came to visit and was such a total joy to have (she also cut the grass and pulled weeds!!!) and to share time with and to share all the beauty of our area with and to bring back the wonder of why we live here and love it! Thanks, Mary Frances, we totally love you and want you back -- real sooooon!

...all your cousins in Montana...we miss you so much!!!

My Mobility Mobile

My two feet

My two pedals

My wonderful Coast King...which I call my Coast Queen!

...because of the internet and other sources of information...it appears companies, agencies, etc. all know the age of a person...when a person is nearing the age of 50, you will probably receive information on joining the AARP...whaaaa...okay, I know there are certain types of benefits gained from joining the AARP...when traveling, motel clerks ask, "Are you a member of AARP?"...it appears there is a 10% discount on the room rent...Well, I have to tell you I have resisted joining AARP until this month...this after a-gazillion messages from AARP ...but I broke down and sent in my fees and received my cards...I only joined in my name...but, bless the internet or the records that are kept (somewhere)...someone knew I had a husband and knew his age and sent along a card for him, too -- bless the snoop who knew (?)...or not.

...now, just the other day I received some more communication this time in regard to one of those motorized chairs...whaaaa????...I tossed it promptly in the garbage, but then on second thought, I retrieved it...you just never know...but it was beyond recovery...some sort of goo was stuck to it...eweee...so back in the garbage...I am sure I will get more of the same information again.

So, that brings me to my mobility mobile...bless my Coast King (which, by the way, I call Coast Queen)...I purchased this wonder some 35 years ago...people ask how many gears I have on my bike...I answer, two -- my two pedals...lordy, they look at me like I am beyond hope. Actually have four gears...my two pedals and my two feet!!! I have purchased and tried two of the bikes with the fancy gears...I just did not do well on them..."Where are the breaks???" I also tended to "strip" the gears, I just never got it right!

I use to tear around on this wonderous mobility mobile -- rip and zip around the trails out to the plowed fields and down our murdeous gravel road...I would do this special "mount" -- one foot on the pedal, get the bike rolling and then throw the other leg over the seat and rip off...oh my goodness! I did learn to ride a bike on a boys bike with that bar in the middle (the killer bar, when you accidently slipped off the seat and hit it...I can still hear the screams and feel the pain)...but the bar did keep the bike from flipping all over the place when you took your hands off the handle bars and road with the wind!

At this point in my life, I keep my hands planted firmly on the handle bars, my mounts are putting my butt gently on the seat, placing my feet carefully on the pedals, giving a push with one foot and off I go...slowly, carefully...going out of my gravel road is a "uphill grade"...it does not look this way, but believe me it is all Uphill! Coming back I go like crazy, peddling like there is no tomorrow...knowing if I crash and burn there may be no tomorrow...or it would be painfull.

So since my left foot is full of problems and my hips...and oh I won't bore you with all the kinks in the old body...walking is not a choice anymore...so, out comes my wonder mobility mobile! And I am off with the wind in what is left of hair (I got a little sissors happy a week or so ago)!

My dog, Boo-Boo, loves to run along side...we have a race when I come back and it is Downhill!

I always thought getting "old" would be fun...just enjoying life, not worrying about the "packaging" anymore (what you looked like)...just becoming a jolly older person...I thought the aches would hit somewhere in the eighties...The other day I was walking back to let my pup out of his kennel and my left foot was really in pain...I thought to myself, "I feel like an old lady"...then it dawned on me that I was an old lady...not reallllllly old, but old enough! Yikes!

...It is Father's Day...a happy day to all the fathers out there! It is overcast and 58 degrees here today...which is fine with me...I do not like it too hot. I like it about 70 degrees. And, of course, there is a wind blowing so that makes it cooler.

...happy day everyone...take care, enjoy, live life to the fullest, and be kind to others!

The Clouds are joining hands!

It was a very nice day...well, it still is except for the clouds "joining hands" and forming some very powerful looking formations...and is that thunder I hear???


Our family is working the ground and getting the seed in. The weather and equipment have not cooperated...but, then, do they ever?..


Being as I am the official "camp tender" (so designated by myself)...this time of year brings the most greasy, dirty, awful smelling laundry...well, second to calving time which just was over...but grease is something else to get out of the shirts and jeans! There was a time when I, too, climbed aboard a tractor and went round and round and up and down in the fields -- that was possibly the most boring job I did on our farm. I would try and think of wonderful things -- do some mental designing...but the smell of diesel would interfere with my thoughts. I had the task of farming with the 806 IH, no cab and that exhaust on the top of the front of the tractor spewing that diesel back to me........ughie!


May was a very bad month for our family we lost a wonderful member, Sylvia Hendricks. Sylvia is Kara's sweet precious Mother. (Kara is our daughter-in-law.) Sylvia was here visiting during the bad snow storm the end of April. She became ill and Kara's Dad took her home. She went to the doctor and it was discovered that the cancer she had years earlier had metastasized and was attacking her liver and lungs. Sylvia died on May 31, 2009. It is hard to comprehend that within a month, Sylvia was diagnosed, treated, and died. A wonderful, delightful, gentle, caring, giving member of our family left us.


We may have lilacs in July sometime...who knows when the peonies will bloom. I see the irises are actually budding! The columbines want to bloom, perhaps they are scared to do it because they may get frosted at night! I have some lovely irises that just will not bloom again...they are a frilly variety...such a very hard place to grow any kind of flowers, trees, or what-have-you...the wind and the extreme temps are just too hard on plants.


When I was in Idaho Falls last week, I was astounded by all the blooming plants...rose bushes, trees, flowers of every kind...I remember all those lovely things from northern Illinois where I was raised and lived 27 years of my life before I came to Montana.


Our part of Montana is very hard on flowers, bushes, trees of any kind, and gardens. The growing season is very short. Flowers and folks have to be hardy to live where we do!!!


I went out the other evening to gather eggs (I was later than usual) and when I opened the door to the quonset it was very quiet...way too quiet...the hens always run clucking to me to see what I may have brought to them for treats. Not a hen in sight...I knew there was something really wrong and it would not be good. I called for the hens...nothing...then I heard a little chatter from the far corner of the quonset...some of the hens were hiding...I called to them...


With chickens there are always feathers around...but I could not believe the amount of feathers all over the quonset! I found a piece of feathers that use to be around the neck of one of my Araucana hens...with skin attached...this was the most injured hen...the skin and feathers had been ripped right off the back of her neck, and I could see her neck bones...she had more hanging from the front of her. Other hens were missing their tail feathers and back feathers! It was awful to see. Many were hiding in the wood pile...it is a good thing that there are so many hiding places in the quonset because whatever got in there and tore up my hens couldn't get them in the wood pile. The quonset is closed off on the NW end with a heavy four-foot metal section with 4" x 4" openings. We know our dogs were not in there, nor can they get in there. We have sighted a fox running around our area. I thought it was "neat" to see a red fox running around. I don't know if we will ever know what got in there and did all this destruction to my hens. I now go out every hour or so and check on them. I have put up chicken wire over the metal mesh section to close off the 4" x 4" openings. I sprayed the injured hens with emu oil first aide spray and hope for the best. I had a hen that had most of her feathers and some of her skin torn off by a dog and she made it back okay...her feathers eventurally all grew back as did her tail and injured wings. I kept her separate so the other hens would not peck at her.

Well, it is time for me to do a chicken check and collect eggs.


Everyone take care and stay well.......enjoy and be good to each other....

Watching the Waterways!

This is the canal and at this point it goes under the Kennedy Creek. The canal is to the west of us.

This is Kennedy Creek which joins up with the Saint Mary River which runs behind our corrals. Kennedy is to the north of us.

In the distance up against the hills is our ranch with Kennedy to the left in the picture. (Saint Mary River runs along the back tree line by the bottom of the hills.)

Kennedy Creek

This time of year we think of flooding or the possibility of flooding. Our home place is located in a flood plain. We are rather surrounded with water of some sort or another. And if the snow melt is hastened by a lot of rain, things could get rough or really wet -- fast!

Yesterday my husband called for me to come to the front door of our home. "Listen to the creek," he said. You could hear it roaring down to the Saint Mary River which is behind our home. The canal runs under Kennedy Creek and then comes back up to go between meadows and drops down by Camp Nine Road and travels on its way to Malta, Montana.

And so our thoughts turn to the "what ifs" of the waterways each year at this time. We were in the flood of 1975 when Kennedy took out the bridge over highway 89 cutting off traffic. Highway 89 is the only road from the Canadian Border on down to Babb and on south. We evacuated our home place and went to higher ground during that flood. For us to get back to the ranch we had to travel the canal bank east and drive over planks where other bridges were out then come in from Browning and back to the ranch. Browning is 45 miles from our home place plus the miles it took to get to Browning. That was a year of adventures to be sure.

Our trees and bushes are way behind. I hear tell that lilacs are blooming in other places...our bushes are just getting leaves (I hope). The clumps of quakes (aspen trees) usually are budded out by now or have a very good start. Not this year.

Our grass around our home is actually needing mowing just from the rain the other day.

...I did see Shooting Stars the other day! They are always so lovely to see!

....take care....

Drive up Chief Mountain Highway!

Summer is here...because Chief Mountain Port of Entry opened today for the summer season! I took a drive up the highway and took some pictures of the Chief...a wondeful mountain that is 9060 feet high. I will post them here in my blog. The Chief can be seen for hundreds of miles around and each view is really different. If you look for The Chief from Cut Bank, Montana (80-ish miles from here, it has a very slender rise into the sky -- from the Chief Mountain Highway (17) it is broad and longer, but as you go up the highway it too changes.

And, of course, no ride up Chief Mountain Highway would be complete without a bear sighting. This little cinnamom bear was right off the highway. When I first saw her she had two little cubs with her -- one light colored and one dark -- the little cubs shot into the brush. She, however, just stood there while I tried to take a picture from my car window.

I was going to take a picture of the port, but it is a mess with some kind of construction going on!

Happy trails everyone!